Major cities in South East Asia often experience severe traffic along with increasing air and noise pollution. Places like Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, and even our very own Manila are already feeling these problems, making it very hard to raise the standard quality of living. For example when driving around Metro Manila, it can take you hours to reach a destination just a few kilometers away. While our governments are doing the best they can, Nissan is also trying to help improve the situation; making South East Asia's cities more liveable.

Yutaka Sanada, Regional Senior Vice President, Asia & Oceania at Nissan says that one of the ways the automaker is doing so is by the promotion of electric vehicles (EVs) through Nissan Intelligent Mobility. With the use of EVs, emssions within the cities are expected to drop by a relatively large margin. It is also easy to integrate EVs into our homes and offices. In fact, many consumers in South East Asia are ready to make the shift to a greener mode of transportation, with consumers open to buying an EV as their next vehicle.

According to Nissan, having the right incentives will help spur the electrification in the region. The automaker cites in their study that consumers named tax waivers as one of the motivators in switching to EVs. That said, there is also the convenience of having charging stations built into apartment and office buildings.

That said, both the government and private sectors need to invest time energy and resources to make this work. For example, Norway has already given tax breaks and invested in charging infrastructure to speed up the adoptions of EVs. Closer to home, Singapore has already launched the first electric car sharing program with 2,000 charging points expected to rise by 2020.

Nissan hopes that with the adoption of electrification, key cities in South East Asia could be more liveable in the future.